Innocence
by David Shigure
Summary: The young Valkyrian doesn't know what love is exactly. But in the midst of battle, her first encounter with it almost loses her someone dear. In the heat of battle, she embraces her feelings, and surprises her favourite red-headed commander.


Innocence

Gunfire, the strong smell of burning and screams. They were surrounding her, cascading through her, trying to make a dent in the emotional wave that was currently racing through her. To her left, Rene and Noel were firing one lancer after another, valiently trying to take down the enemy's tank and defences. To her right, Sigrid and Alexis were fighting together, simultaneously with a shield and a rifle, together as Scout and Tech.

Watching them together, she began to feel a strange emotion. Something like envy. The bond they seemed to have in that moment, fighting together. It was something she had never seen before.

Suddenly, her world was reality again. A strangled yell came from behind her, and as she turned round, a familiar head of red was running straight towards her.

"Aliasse, look out!" Diving on top of her, Avan made sure her head was hidden behind the sandbags, as a loud shot rang out across the battlefield. She heard the whistle, as the bullet went whizzing just where her head had been seconds before.

"Anisette! Suppress the sniper! Melissa, counterattack and take him out!" Avan shouted orders into the radio. Another volley of bullets whizzed overhead. Clearly a scout was taking potshots in the hope that they would poke over their cover and get their heads blown off. But Avan was taking any chances.  
Rolling over onto his back, he pulled out one of his grenades, unscrewed the trigger and flung it over the sandbags to where he thought the shots were coming from. A few seconds later resulted in a satisfying explosion and an accompanied rebel scream. The bullet volleys stopped for the moment.

Melissa trained the target in her scope. The rebel sniper was disorientated from the flash of Avan's grenade, making it a perfect oppurtunity. Counting to three, she pulled the trigger and watched as the sniper was thrown from his lookout post, his chest bleeding severely.

"Sniper eliminated, area clear, over." Melissa's voice crackled back through to Avan's radio. Breathing a sigh of relief, Avan turned around to look at Aliasse again. He was about ready to ask her if she was alright, to see if she had been hurt or wounded in any way.  
The first thing he noticed was that her face was bright red. Redder then his hair, which wasn't an easy feat.

"Hey, Avan…" Her bright red eyes sparkled for a second. In that second, Avan saw a maturity in her eyes far beyond her years. It took all of his self-control to remind himself that this was a thirteen year old girl he was talking to.  
But still, something about the soft, silvery hair and those eyes together had transfixed something inside of him. He wasn't sure what it was.

His train of thought was interrupted with an explosion. Their tanks left flank had just been hit by a random lancer round. Smoke billowed out from the impact point, and his radio quickly scrambled into life.

"Avan! Major damage, I need an engineer stat!" Lavinia, the tank's pilot yelled down the mic. Registering the order, Avan clicked his radio to transmit.

"Cosette, what's your position? The tanks been hit, and all the other engineers are too far away right now."

The radio was deathly silent. For a second, his heart stopped. There was no way…

"A-Avan…" A soft, faint voice came from the radio. "I…need help…"

"Cosette! Where are you!" Avan was beginning to lose his cool. She sounded injured. Badly injured. Continuing into the radio, Avan addressed the whole squad.

"Everyone, Cosette is injured, condition unknown. Scouts and Engineers, find her ASAP! Medpacks and ragnaid application as soon as you find her. Medic, back them up!"

Another explosion, this time not hitting the tank, but close enough to scare Lavinia. Her voice bellowed from the radio again.

"Avan! The hell is that engineer?"

His brain was a whirlwind of screaming voices and thoughts of Cosette lying in a ditch somewhere bleeding to death somewhere with a million and one snipers zoning in to her.

"Avan, on route to the tank now. Nichol, Zeri and Lotte are in close proximity to Cosette." Magari's voice echoed through the radio, breathing some life into his depressing morale.

"Copy that Magari, thanks a bunch. Lavinia, engineer on route, sit tight and take as much evasive action as you can."

"A-Avan… " Cosette's voice was weakening. Aliasse was listening to radio, whilst watching Avan's expression at the same time. Both were unbearable, and without a second thought, she stood up and dragged Avan to his feet.

"We're saving Cosette." She ran off ahead of him, her rifle locked and loaded.

Machine gun fire burst from the bushes surrounding the road. Jumping forward to cover, Aliasse landed heavily on her side, the adrenaline sending her heart into a painful frenzy. She could see Avan running towards her, firing at something just beyond her cover. With a smile, she watched as he ran closer to her, marvelling at how heroic he looked. With an expression of horror, she watched as a stray bullet caught him on the shoulder, spinning him around with a scream of agony and a dance of blood from the entry wound.

Poking out of her cover, she instantly saw the offending soldier, lined him up in her sights and sent a bullet straight between the eyes. She took another agonising five seconds to clear the area, before racing to Avan.

"Idiot! You're gonna get killed!" She screamed at him, her eyes beginning to tear up. Pulling out her ragnaid, she twisted the cap, allowing the mystical blue energy to heal his wound.  
Watching her do her thing, Avan was surprised to see the mature side of Aliasse reappear. Stories of war had told him that being on the battlefield was enough to send people crazy, but he began to see a beauty in her. The way the blue light reflected on her face. The way her hair shimmered in the sunlight. The way her eyes reflected the blue, even though they were the complete opposite colour. They seemed to mesh together perfectly. He was speechless.

Aliasse grabbed her radio, setting it to the team frequency. She gave the details of her location, the extent of Avan's injury, yelled for a medic and complained loudly of how much of an idiot he was.

Throwing down her radio, she knelt next to Avan, clearly not in a good mood.

"Aliasse…" He smiled weakly. "Thank you for-"

He was cut off with an unexpected kiss. Her eyes closed, her lips trembling, her eyes covered by her silvery hair. His mind just stopped.  
After an eternity, she broke away, a sneaky smile etched onto her face.

"Cosette told me that's how your supposed to kiss someone that you like. Was it right?" She said nervously.

His brain still hadn't restarted, so the only thing he could do was nod slowly, his mouth hanging open like an idiot. She grinned at him, which served to intensify how silly he felt.

"I don't want you dying before I can make you mine. Idiot." And with that, she stood up and ran towards the rest of the squad. The mission was over, a complete success with Cosette successfully recovered and patched up.

Avan stood up, and watched as the Valkyrian girl ran ahead of him, smiling softly.

"Wait a while Aliasse. I don't know if you're ready for something like that yet. One day maybe…"


End file.
